Extended ‘lame duck’ period creates headaches

An exceptionally long nomination period before the next municipal election means council in Elizabethtown-Kitley will delegate power to township staff for a period of four months.

Next year’s municipal elections in Ontario will be held on Oct. 22, and the time between nomination day – the deadline to file a nomination – and election day is referred to as a ‘lame duck’ period.

“I have never come to council with this request before because in actual fact, the lame duck period is usually quite small,” Yvonne Robert, the township clerk said at council last week.

This period of time is typically only around a month or two, but nomination day next year will be July 27, a month-and-a-half earlier than the 2014 election. That means council may be in a lame duck position for a period of over four months, until the new Council is sworn in, which in the township’s case will be Dec. 3, 2018.

A council is a lame duck as it approaches the end of its term and there are certain limits put on its authority, specifically in terms of how much money it can spend and how it can bind future councils.

According to a staff report, the “Municipal Act stipulates that there may be a period of time following nomination day that municipal councils are restricted from appointment/removal from office of any officer of the municipality, hiring or dismissal of any employee of the municipality, disposition of any real property having a value of over $50,000 and making any expenditure or incurring any other liability which exceeds $50,000 unless included in the most recently adopted budget.”

Robert said that if anybody quits during this exceptionally long period, it would add to staff’s already heavy workload during an election and impede its ability to run properly.

With council unable to make any hiring decision during a lame duck period, staff recommended council delegate power to Robert, the township’s administrator-clerk and Diane Gordon, the director of finance.

For example, the report said if the township loses an equipment operator, that position cannot be filled until the new council sits, even though council has traditionally not appointed this position. But the Act states “hiring of any employees of the municipality” is restricted, she said.

Another question has come up as to what would happen if there were an abrupt vacancy, such as a person going on extended sick leave or departing for a new opportunity. The township would not be permitted to appoint someone to fill in during the absence, she said.

“We’re now looking at over 130 days where if something happens, such as a member of staff going off sick long-term, or somebody up and leaving us in the middle of the election, we are in a potential issue that we can’t replace that employee.”

The request was made in order to “ensure the efficient and effective running of the municipality” during that time period, the report stated.

“We’re already tight and if somebody leaves (during that time), we’re in trouble if we do not have that delegated power. It’s only for that period of time,” Robert said.

Despite the unusual nature of the request, they did not see any resistance from council on the matter.